Yeah his rookie year was pretty much a best-case scenario. For all of the (deserved) hype that Werenski got, I'd be very curious how Provorov would have done this year if he was paired with Jones as opposed to what we had here.

Pretty pumped though, if you're ranking U23 D in the NHL right now, think he's right there with Werenski, Ekblad, Jones, etc.

Yeah, for a while there, Provorov was well ahead of all the other rookie defensemen in ES primary points, though I think he came back to the pack by the end of the year. Even if he tops out as a 35 point guy, I'm thrilled since it looks like everything else in his game will be so good.

He's always looked smaller than those guys to me for some reason, but just checked and he's listed at 6'0 while Doughty/Suter are both listed at 6'1, so maybe he'll just fill out a bit as he gets older.

I was looking around rosters earlier and I really don't think there are that many younger guys on his level. Werenski/Jones/Ekblad sure and apparently people are very high on Slavin/Pesce in Carolina (plus Hanifin), but hard to think of that many other U23 d-men that you could put in that group.